Greece
Greece is a country in southeastern Europe at the southern end of the Balkan peninsula. It has a population of over 11,000,000 and capital is Athens. The junior national team of Greece was formed in 1990 and played its first international competition in the World Junior Championships held in Yugoslavia.1 They lost their first game 33–1 against Yugoslavia on December 27, 1990.2 They continued their losing streak with a 22–1 loss to Bulgaria. Throughout the rest of 1990 and 1991, the Greeks lost five more games including a 22–0 shutout against Great Britain by a combined score of 93–2.3 In 1991, they also participated in the World Junior Championship.1 During their first two years of international competition, Greece was outscored by a score of 148–5.3 Despite being outscored by 143 goals the past two years Greece suffered their worst defeat in 1992 against Latvia losing 47–1.2 The 46 goal difference was the largest in their history.2 Greece went on to be outscored 85–3 in their final three games of the year.3 Following the Greek national team's bronze medal at the World Championships in 1992, the sport suffered a decline in support from the people of Greece. Despite this, the junior team ended up winning one game and losing four at European Championships.1 As of 2010, there are currently 76 players playing junior hockey in Greece.4 In IIHF competitions, Greece has a current record of 0–11–0.2 Ice Hockey started in Greece in 1984 by players that returned to Greece from abroad. The first official Greek Championship was held in 1989 in the Peace and Friendship Stadium with five teams taking place. It was the first time hockey games were held in a normal size rink. In 1990 the first Junior National Team was formed and took part in the World Junior Championship Pool C, held in Yugoslavia. In 1991 the Junior National Team took part in the World Junior Championship, held in Italy. In 1992 the first ever Men's Greek National Team was formed and took place in the World Championships Pool C held in South Africa. With only two weeks of serious training abroad and the support of the Greeks of South Africa, the National Team won the Bronze medal, placing them 21st overall. It was extraordinary for a team to win a medal in their first appearance at the World Championships. Despite the great achievement, the start of the decline of the sport came in 1993. Economic help was discontinued by the Greek Undersecretary of State for Sports and all expenses to keep ice hockey alive were passed over to the players. Practices stopped and many players quit. Since May 2003 the last ice rink in Greece closed and the national team was left without an ice rink. In the next 4 years, players of the national team traveled at their own expense in the Czech Republic in order to train themselves. Ice hockey was slowly dying until Dimitris Kalyvas, the Captain of the Greek National Ice Hockey Team tried to convince the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) that the National Team is still active and that development of the sport is continuing in Greece despite not having a rink. He later got the support of the Hellenic Ice Sports Federation. After many emails, the IIHF decided to send 2 delegates to Athens to investigate. After a review done by the IIHF in 2008, Greece retained its status within the IIHF, and took part in a qualification tournament against Armenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina in Sarajevo prior to the 2008 Division III championship in Luxembourg. They defeated both teams, beating Armenia 8 - 5 (although Armenia was forced to Forfeit each game 5 - 0), and Bosnia-Herzegovina 10 - 1. National Teams *Greece men's national junior ice hockey team *Greece national ice hockey team League Greek Championship Category:Hockey Countries Category:Countries